Posts Tagged ‘firkin’
New on cask
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
Now on the Brewer’s Choice beer engine is the Blonde Ale, dry hopped with Chinook (grown, hand-picked and air dried in Frederick County). There’s only one pin available so get it while you can.
Dry Hopped Blonde Ale now on cask.
Remember on Tuesday 2nd February @ 6pm we will be releasing our latest seasonal offering, The Bishop’s Indulgence, an 8% stout brewed with cocoa nibs and vanilla beans (see the blog archive for details of the brew). As well as having a kilderkin of The Bishop’s Indulgence aged on American Oak on the beer engine, we will have a glass ended firkin of Best Bitter dry hopped with Maryland Chinook on gravity pour in the lounge for a more “interactive” cask ale drinking experience . I’ll be on hand to talk about cask ale brewing and handling and, as Tuesday night is cask ale appreciation night at The Pratt Street Ale House, cask pints will be just $3 (with the exception of The Bishop’s Indulgence, which will be $3 for a 10 oz snifter).
Cheers
Steve
End of week round up
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Firstly, no Friday Question this week as I’m letting last weeks question for the bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin run until next Friday. It’s something of a relief actually as it’s becoming quite a challenge to come up with a question and prize every week!
I’m getting ready to move the Strongman Pale Ale out of FV and into conditioning tank. I’ve just weighed out hops for dry hopping the tank which I think will add an extra dimension to this ale (the “dimension” of aroma!!….I think my former Physics and Biochemistry professors might have something to say about that!) We’ll be doing a couple of casks which will be dry hopped with Maryland grown Chinook, hand picked and air dried in Frederick County, in contrast to the Kent Goldings which I’m using in the conditioning tank. I’d like to do more casks of this but we used so much cooperage on the Dark Horse yesterday that we don’t have any more available at this time. I’m praying that we get some empty firkins returned next week so I can fill them with the Biere de Garde. Speaking of which, that fermentation is being crash cooled at the moment. The Belgian Ale Yeast strain behaved very differently from my English Ringwood, fermenting well at a lower temperature than I am normally used to and with little yeast head accumulation, almost like a lager yeast. I had to battle to keep the fermentation below 70F whereas I’m normally trying to keep it above 72F! We’re expecting a grain delivery today so a second batch of Scottish Ale is on the schedule for Tuesday.
Have a great weekend.
Cheers
Steve
The Cask Ale Social/ Bishop’s Indulgence Release
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Mark your calendars for a special event at The Pratt Street Ale House. On Tuesday 2nd February @ 6pm we will launch our new seasonal, The Bishop’s Indulgence, an 8% a.b.v. chocolate stout and will be holding an informal discussion of cask ale brewing and handling featuring a glass ended firkin of Best Bitter.
As you can see above, although the view through the firkin is impressive (who are those ruggedly handsome brewers?), when it is filled with beer you’ll be able to see the way that the finings in the cask promote the flocculation of the yeast, forming a sediment at the bottom of the cask. You’ll be able to draw your own pint straight from the cask. I’ll be talking about cask ale preparation and handling and we’ll have the various tools of the trade on display for you to look at and we’ll be on hand to answer any questions that you might have. The event will be pay as you go and of course Tuesday night is cask appreciation night at The Ale House so our cask beer is only $3/pint. For the Bishop’s Indulgence, $3 will get you a 10oz serving in a snifter. But wait, there’s more. If you choose to pay $4 for your first beer you get to keep a souvenir Oliver Ale pint glass!
Bishop’s Indulgence will be available on both cask and regular tap. The cask is aged on Oak with vanilla and is the only Oak Aged cask of this beer that I prepared.
Please come out and support the brewery and our love of cask conditioned ales, it’ll be a fun evening and, who knows, you may learn something!
Cheers
Steve
Mid-week update.
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Tomorrow night our Scottish Ale will be making its cask debut at Metropolitan Coffee House and Wine Bar (902 Charles St.) for their regular Firkin Thursday event. For those of you unfamiliar with Metropolitan, it’s a wonderful neighbourhood bar/ restaurant … a solid tap line-up and fantastic food. The Firkin will be available in the upstairs bar from 6pm. The Scottish Ale returns, bigger and bolder, after a years hiatus due to the renovations at The Pratt Street Ale House last January. It’s a completely new recipe, full bodied with an underlying sweetness you’d expect from a Scottish Ale with hints of smoked and peated malt in the finish and is about 7% abv.
Next Wednesday (13th) The Peeping Tom Porter will make its cask debut at our pint night @ Frisco Grille in Columbia. Also on tap will be the Scottish Ale and 3 Lions so come along, meet the genial brewers and snag a souvenir pint glass.
The Peeping Tom will also be on cask @ Max’s Taphouse on Thursday 14th January.The Scottish Ale & Peeping Tom should be hitting the taps at the Ale House sometime next week. For those of you in the D.C. area casks of Peeping Tom, the Scottish Ale and dry hopped ESB are shipping to Churchkey and ESB should be heading to the Commonwealth Gastro Pub also.
By-the-way, I’m shamelessly promoting January as “buy the brewer a beer month” … yeah, that’s right, it’s my Birthday soon and I have now spent over a third of my life brewing beer …. how did that happen?!
Cheers for now
Steve
Mid week round-up
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
Well here we are …. the last brew day of 2009! We’re ending with a Bishop’s Breakfast and, as it happens I’ll be filling some firkins and a kilderkin with the Bishop’s Indulgence and moving the rest to conditioning. I’ll be starting the next year with a bang by brewing the Hot Monkey Love … a statement of intent for the coming year! I’m awaiting delivery of 4 Woodford Reserve barrels (big shout out to Barrett @ The District Chophouse for supplying the info for making it possible) so we’ll be doing some interesting things with those. The first 3 seasonal brews for 2010 are in various stages of process. The Scottish Ale (7%abv) is in conditioning, The Peeping Tom Porter (4.4%abv) is fermenting and, as I’ve already mentioned, the Bishop’s Indulgence (8%abv) is moving to conditioning today. Firkins of the Scottish Ale will be going out to Max’s and ChurchKey next week so look out for them on tap in the near future. In the second week of January I’ll also be brewing the Strongman Pale Ale which will probably be around the 7.5% – 8% abv mark.
Casks of the Bishop's Indulgence
Four firkins of The Bishop’s Indulgence will be shipped to outside accounts. A kilderkin with American Oak is staying at The Pratt Street Ale House for release in early February.
Don’t forget to enter The Friday Question …. you’ve got until Friday a.m. when I’ll post the answer.
Cheers for now. Have a great New Year celebration.
Steve
Thursday Night Is Cask Night!
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Seems that Thursday Night is a good night to get cask conditioned ale in the region. As usual it’s firkin night in the upstairs bar at Metropolitan in Federal Hill from 6pm. Tonight’s featured cask is our Merry Ole Ale, a 6% abv spiced brown ale. Max’s on Broadway and Frisco Grille out in Columbia have also started featured cask nights on Thursday. One of the ales on the engines at Max’s is our “William’s Winter Warmer”, 8% abv with just a hint of festive spice, perfect for these cold nights. I don’t know what Frisco’s featured cask is tonight but the Merry Ole Ale is on the beer engine at the moment. Here at The Pratt Street Ale House we’re hosting the SPBW Christmas Party in our upstairs bar with 3 firkins on the bar for those guys but don’t forget that we have 3 beer engines at the downstairs bar serving cask ale all the time, with a special ($3 pints) night on Tuesday after 5pm.
cask ale news
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Ever wanted to know a little bit more about cask/real ales? Ever wondered what happens inside the cask? Well you won’t have to wait too much longer. Sometime in the New Year (date to be confirmed, most likely early February) we’ll be having a beer tasting with a difference at The Pratt Street Ale House. It will be a sort of informal seminar about cask ale production and cellarmanship with tastings of a few casks prepared especially for the occasion. Of special interest will be the chance to see how the yeast forms a sediment in the cask using a glass ended firkin generously provided for the occasion by Steve Parkes, brewing guru and main man at the American Brewers Guild. The event will most likely be ticket only and will be held in the upstairs Library Room. More details will be posted as they are finalized.
Speaking of casks we will be sending out more firkins of Best Bitter and Dry Hopped Ironman Pale Ale to ChurchKey and Best Bitter and E.S.B. to Pizzeria Paradiso in D.C. so look out for those if you’re in the D.C. area.
cask news
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
Cask ale seems to be alive and well in D.C. thanks in no small part to the recent opening of Birch & Barley (1337 14th St. NW) which has 5 (yes! 5) beer engines along with 50 regular taps. I spoke with Greg there yesterday who told me that the cask ale is flying out and then promptly ordered every cask that I had available so expect to see Oliver Ales on the beer engines in the very near future (7 firkins ship out on Wednesday). It looks like an amazing place, check out the photos and review in the archive at the Yours For Good Fermentables blog, can’t wait to get over there for a beer.
Also check out Bertha’s in Fells Point who are going to start a regular(ish) cask on the bar type thing. We’re shipping out a pin (that’s a 5.4 gallon cask) of Blackfriar Stout with vanilla beans in the cask on Wednesday … could be on the bar that evening … I’ll keep you posted!
cask update
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
New on cask today ….. drum roll …. Hot Monkey Love, oh yeah. Come try one and then compare it to the regular tap version. The malt flavors explode out of the cask version, exquisite!
Also coming soon will be William’s Winter Warmer
I see a Winter Warmer in your future!
Two of the firkins are on Oak, the first of which will be released in mid December.
goodnight william
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Well there it is, done for the year. William’s Winter Warmer has been “put to bed” in FV1, one of our 14 barrel vessels, yeast has been pitched and the wort vigorously roused to aerate it as much as possible. Aeration is very important at this early stage, especially for a relatively high gravity beer such as this, to promote good yeast cell division and get fermentation off to a rapid start. If we were to under aerate for example we may experience an extended lag phase and we’ll be in for a correspondingly lengthy fermentation which may require re-pitching of active yeast. Ensuring that we have a viable yeast pitched into a well aerated wort at optimal temperature (70F in this case) will get us off to a good start and avoid problems further down the line. It is for this reason that we collected our 7 barrels of wort in a 14 bbl FV, it is physically easier to rouse (and hence aerate) the wort. The large head space in the open fermenting vessel also helps avoid loss of yeast from the vessel as the yeast head rises during exponential growth or due to rapid release of dissolved CO2 from the fermenting wort which sometimes happens as the night time ambient temperature falls and the wort is then roused the following morning. I collected the wort at an original gravity of 1.080 and will be aiming to attenuate to about 1.016 before crash cooling giving a final a.b.v. of a little over 8%. I will fill a number of firkins with William’s Winter Warmer, at least 2 of which will be aged on Oak for release in January.
Cheers
Steve